How to address late-night firepit smoke from neighbours diplomatically?

[Doodledoggle]

Hi all,

I have an issue with neighbours repeatedly having firepit bonfires late at night. I am asthmatic.

We live in the south and it hasn't been below 28 degrees in the day for weeks and so we look forward to the cool air at night.

Last night, for the third time this week I fell asleep to lovely cool fresh country air when we opened the windows at 9pm and woke up at 2am to the bedroom full of the smell of smoke.

Except last night it was so bad I had to sit downstairs taking repeated inhaler doses as I couldn't breathe. I still feel breathless despite many doses of fostair.

The problem is I don't know which neighbour it is and so I need to either knock on doors or send a note.

Our house is perpendicular to the village and our bedroom windows all face one way (long thin house).

Aibu to say something? How would I phrase if? I tend to go at these things like a bull in a China shop when I'm upset and I need some help with diplomacy here!

We are rural, but it is a village and in the summer months the breeze always blows towards our house as we are south/south west facing.

Can anyone help please?

Nope. 50 % of pollution enters the inside of your house. People need fresh air to breathe at night, completely sealing the outside air and stoping it from coming in means that internal CO2 levels spike and mould growth can occur.

Not the point of the thread but I think they are mad having an open fire at the moment, it's like a tinderbox everywhere at the moment, I'd be terrified of setting our whole village on fire!

It absolutely could happen. An old school friend of mine’s garden shed burned down 2 days ago in similar circumstances.

Who wants to have their windows shut in the middle of summer?!!! Especially because of selfish, stupid people who shouldn’t be lighting any kind of fire while everything is bone dry!
Bloody hell.
OP, I would definitely speak to the fire brigade and quite possibly the owner of the neighbour’s house. The poster who said a spark or ember won’t set a thatched roof on fire are sadly misguided.

My colleague’s parent’s house burned to the ground set off by a neighbour’s BBQ.

It is not ludicrous. Would you risk it? I have friends with thatched houses who won't even have a barbecue in the garden.

I’d be worried about sparks in the air at the moment, if I lived in a thatched house!

Sadly the fire brigade won’t give a shit.

I repeatedly called 999 about my bonkers neighbour having bonfire with flames 9ft high which I could see over the 8ft hedge. They used to come out and ask the neighbour to put the fire out but tell him and me they couldn’t force him to as it was a “controlled fire” attended to by an adult. That seems to be the official fire brigade advice.

what do you know he burnt my hedge, sheds and garden office down and I nearly lost the house only a few weeks after my last fire brigade call out where they acted like I was being unreasonable. I lost my shit that day not only with the neighbour but also the firefighters! I think “I told you this would fucking happen” might have been shouted more than once! 😁

it was sparks which set my hedge on fire so I can well believe they’d set a thatch on fire.

So yes it might be worth a try incase your local firefighters are more proactive than mine but don’t hold your breath. I’d certainly talk to all the neighbours and try and work out who it is. Then talk to them. Maybe others are also being affected. Is there not a local fb group you could post on?

That’s awful! What a bloody stupid neighbour!
I’m sorry the fire brigade weren’t interested because it was being attended to. Let’s hope the OP’s unit are more proactive.

I’d check with your local council. We live in a smokeless area, which isn’t strongly managed but they do for garden fires.
people behind us got a chiminea and were burning rubbish in it (including plastic). Of course at the bottom of their very long garden so the smoke went into ours.
I complained once and they got a letter, few months later they tried again and with that complaint they were threatened with a fine.
They don’t know it was us though.

Find out who it is then ask nicely for them to please stop.
I was burning my muck heap and a neighbour complained (not nicely) and I did immediately put it out. He was stunned 😂

Thanks all.

I think I've narrowed it down to which house and I feel a bit calmer and i'm planning a long nap after lunch as I got so little sleep.

I've decided to pop round about teatime. Before they decide to burn it all night.I wouldn't mind earlier in the evening so much, we still have all our windows closed till 9pm as the days are so hot.

But as to PP suggesting we close the windows, you obviously don't live in a Southern county where the heat hasn't receded for a minute all summer!

I appreciate I can't TELL them not to have a fire, but I will ask them to be mindful of the direction of the wind. And I may also call the estate company that manages the houses on Monday. I'm pretty sure their tenants contracts used to say something about fires.

We don't have fires in our garden as I think our insurance is strict on the distance from the thatch someone can have an open fire.

If none of these things work (but why wouldn't they, most people are reasonable) then I'll think about the fire brigade.

You are all lovely for chipping in with your thoughts. Thank you.

I’m assuming you can’t see the firepit if you’re not 100% sure which house. Which is a shame as it probably means you can’t put a hose on it. I did that once with my neighbours bonfire, don’t think he was overly impressed. I just told him I thought it was a fire 😆

Direct messaging!!

No there are trees and some other cottages in the way.

I wouldn't have the guts to do that either!

Definitely mention the spark/fire risk as well as the smoke issue. Even hot ash could be enough to set dry thatch alight.

To the pp who doesn’t think a roof could be set alight - have you ever seen thatch???

Did you identify the neighbour last night?

No, there was no fire, it was windy and cloudy so they obvs didn't bother. Same weather today, plus we had rain so I'm hopeful for another good night's sleep!

If the Op lives close enough to a house where they have a fire pit going at night, she lives close enough to hear their conversations whilst sitting round said fire pit. Therefore she just needs to look out of her window to see where the flames are.
My neighbour has a fire pit. I cannot smell any smoke from it through my open bedroom window - which is probably about 8 metres away. I can only smell it if I’m in my garden when it’s lit.
Someone who has bad asthma probably shouldn’t live in a thatched roof house due to the amount of dust the thatch produces.

@Soontobe60 then perhaps it isn't a firepit and perhaps it is a bonfire.

I absolutely can't see into anyone's gardens as we don't have immediate neighbours. And i can't see through walls to the back gardens as we look at the front of the other village houses.

The village is in a valley and so if smoke is created, unless the wind is strongly from the north, the smoke tends to get 'stuck' in the village and seeps in either via open windows or via the ill fitting listed building cottage windows 😂

Our neighbours have one of those fire pits. Last year they sat out most weekends with it burning. It stank. I wondered if they were cooking some foul smelling meat or fish but then remembered they're vegan so it must have been the wood. Our bedroom is at the back and when I went up the room stank of smoke. This year they had it going one evening and it was horrible, then someone said on the road WhatsApp group Is there somewhere on fire? Our house is filled with smoke and it smells terrible! I don't know whether or not to phone the fire brigade!
Neighbours must have seen it because they haven't used it since!
I suspect the writer knew exactly who it was but their passive aggressive comment worked!

Im not suggesting you knock someone's door late at night. Just identify where the smoke had come from. Then go down next day and explain about the effect on your health problem. Perhaps there is somewhere else they could site the bonfire.

exactly

but the Op seems to think that she won’t be able to control herself from kicking off!

You could have saved yourself a lot of discomfort by strolling over there one day to explain how the smoke really impacts you

I appreciate I can't TELL them not to have a fire, but I will ask them to be mindful of the direction of the wind.

You might aswell tell them not to light a fire, they can’t control the direction of the wind.
I’d find you passive aggressive asking me to be mindful of the wind

I totally sympathize. In my last house the layout of the gardens meant the bottom of my neighbours garden was very slide to my bedroom window. The built a fire pit and sat round to every night in spring, summer and autumn. I couldn’t open my windows in the summer at all. I asked them a couple of times to move the fire out but they refused.

i moved.